~hiro has added a photo to the pool:

gnsk has added a photo to the pool:

Zangeres Lenny Kuhr (76) emigreert deze zomer na een lange loopbaan naar Israël. Haar steun aan het land waar haar dochters en kleinkinderen al wonen maakt haar controversieel: bij optredens werd gedemonstreerd, deze week werd een concert afgezegd.

Prisoners have a right to communicate with the media about their cases. Yet after 41 years in jail, Bamber has been banned

A few weeks ago I wrote a lengthy email to Jeremy Bamber, who has been in prison for nearly 41 years after being convicted of murdering five family members. Bamber has always protested his innocence, and the late Guardian prison correspondent Eric Allison and I have frequently written about Bamber and the White House Farm murders in the Guardian over the years.

In the email, I asked about aspects of his case as I often do, chatted about a football match I’d been to with my younger daughter at the weekend, told him my older daughter was pregnant, mentioned that I’d been out for lunch with a forensics expert, and said we had an amazing blossom tree across the road that had just come into full bloom. I also emailed a photo of the blossom tree.

Simon Hattenstone is a features writer for the Guardian

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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Duke of Sussex says legitimate concerns over situation in Middle East should not lead to hostility toward Jewish community in UK

Prince Harry has described rising antisemitism in Britain as “deeply troubling”, saying that while people were entitled to feel anger over events in the Middle East, there could be no justification for hostility towards individuals or faith communities.

The Duke of Sussex appeared to make a veiled criticism of the Israeli government, while stressing that legitimate protest should never tip into hatred.

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Het bedrijf Andries B.V., gevestigd in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, overspoelt grote webwinkels met duizenden door kunstmatige intelligentie gemaakte boeken. Allerlei onderwerpen passeren de revue: van aquariumvissen tot het leeuwenkopkonijn. Volgens critici problematisch, omdat AI-modellen getraind zijn met illegaal auteursrechtelijk beschermd materiaal.

• Palantir Employees Are Starting to Wonder if They're the Bad Guys [ungated] - "For a company full of employees already reeling over its work with ICE, possible involvement in the death of children was a breaking point."
• As Measles Takes Toll on Kids, Anti-Vaxxers Have Change of Heart - "Katie Jennings was scrolling on her phone last April when a headline stopped her cold. A second unvaccinated child had died of measles in her home state of Texas. It was a tipping point for the 40-year-old stay-at-home mom who had grown up in a staunchly anti-vaccine, fundamentalist Christian community. 'What are we doing? Why are we doing this?' she remembers thinking."

also btw...

• Trump is losing the voters he needs most - "Three groups of Americans [Hispanic, Black and young Americans] were especially important to his second win... When More in Common surveyed Trump voters early in his second term, 13% of those in the reluctant right group said they felt at least some regret about their vote. 'Today that number is in the mid-30s...'"
• Anthony Scaramucci: My Wall Street Buddies Regret Voting for Trump [ungated transcript] - "You are losing the predictive capability of our justice system — what our civil rights are, what our free speech rights are. It's very, very bad for business."

The majority of Americans are now opposed to datacenters being built in their area, many strongly opposed, pointing to tough times ahead for site developers. A Gallup survey found more than 70 percent of respondents indicate they would be against the construction of an AI datacenter in their neighboorhood, with almost half (48 percent) saying they were strongly opposed. Only 27 percent were in favor. The polling shows how quickly AI server farms have become politically toxic in the US, not helped by stories about their effects on energy bills, slurping up water supplies, and creating air and noise pollution in their vicinity. To highlight this, Gallup found that more US residents are opposed to massive data halls than to having a nuclear power plant in their backyard: 53 percent of Americans oppose building a nuclear energy site nearby, compared with the 71 percent against datacenter construction. When it comes to the reasons for opposing AI campuses, half of all respondents cite the effect on resources, with excess water usage and potential power grid constraints topping the list. Concern about loss of farmland and nature was surprisingly low, with just 7 percent mentioning this, but it is possible the scores are higher in rural areas. Quality-of-life concerns such as increased traffic were put forward by nearly a quarter, while a fifth mentioned higher utility bills. Many were worried about AI specifically: that it would replace human workers, that they don't trust it, that it is moving too fast, and that the industry needs regulating. Perhaps the latter sentiment is why President Trump appears to have shifted his own position on the need for AI regulations. Conversely, those in favor of datacenters cite economic benefits, with 55 percent mentioning increased job opportunities, and 13 percent saying it is because of increased tax revenues. However, these people are perhaps laboring under some delusions, as datacenters generally deliver few long-term local jobs once they are operational, and far from increasing tax revenue, many benefit from generous tax subsidy schemes that are costing some individual US states upward of $1 billion in lost income each year. This being America in 2026, Gallup looked at how attitudes stack up depending on political affiliation. It found that Democrats, at 56 percent, are much more likely than Republicans to be strongly opposed to a server farm in their vicinity. But 39 percent of Republicans are also strongly opposed, while another 24 percent are somewhat averse to it, and only about a third are in favor. Gallup points out the contradiction: for AI usage to expand in the US, facilities that can handle the necessary computing power will have to be built. But most Americans appear to take a "not in my backyard" attitude to new bit barns, and that attitude has grown in strength. The Register noted this last year, when Emma Fryer, public policy director for datacenter operator CyrusOne, said: "People don't make a connection between the digital services they depend on every minute of every day of their lives and the fact that providing them every minute of every day of their lives requires industrial-scale infrastructure." She was speaking during a discussion of the industry's image problem at the Datacloud Global Congress event in Cannes, France. Garry Connolly, founder of Digital Infrastructure Ireland, told the same audience: "Most people are fucking scared of AI, like we're feeding a monster." Telling the public that all those massive datacenters are needed for AI is therefore not a winning argument. ®

Oppassen als u net gegeten hebt, want hier komt een verschrikkelijk verhaal over een meisje van 6 dat door haar moeder is mishandeld. "Het meisje werd geslagen met een bezemsteel. Ook werd ze geschopt en kreeg ze soms voor straf langere tijd nauwelijks tot niets te eten. Ook moest ze haar eigen braaksel van de grond opeten." Volgens de moeder deed zij dit onder invloed van een vriendin, die zelf haar 7-jarige zoon ook mishandelde. 

Uit de (gruwelijke) uitspraak van de rechter: "Zo heeft zij verklaard dat zij heeft geweigerd een oor van [kind 2] af te knippen, nadat vriendin [voorletter vriendin] . dat zou hebben opgedragen omdat [kind 2] volgens haar “flaporen” had zoals haar vader. Ook heeft de moeder verklaard dat zij weigerde de vingers van [kind 2] te breken toen zij daartoe opdracht kreeg. Volgens de moeder hadden dergelijke weigeringen voor haarzelf “consequenties”. Zij heeft verklaard dat zij zichzelf dan pijn moest doen, bijvoorbeeld door haar eigen haar af te branden, hetgeen zij naar eigen zeggen ook daadwerkelijk heeft gedaan. Daarnaast zou zij opdrachten hebben gekregen om vernielingen te plegen, waaronder het lek steken van autobanden van de vader, wat volgens haar eveneens is gebeurd." Ook zijn sommige mishandelingen gefilmd, waarmee de moeder van het meisje door de moeder van de jongen (die gelukkig ook niet meer thuis woont, uitspraak in die zaak hierr) werd gechanteerd. 

Het meisje, dat ook regelmatig werd opgesloten in een kelder, is zelfs in een coma beland. "Op 7 februari 2026 heeft de moeder in de avond de ambulance gebeld, omdat [kind 2] bleef overgeven en haar bewustzijn verloor. De ambulance trof [kind 2] aan in een vervuilde woning en heeft een melding bij VTG gedaan. [kind 2] werd opgenomen in het ziekenhuis, waar artsen haar toestand omschreven als ernstig ziek, onverzorgd, ondervoed en uitgedroogd. Zij werd op de intensive care opgenomen, beademd en in kunstmatige coma gebracht in verband met respiratoire en circulatoire insufficiëntie en een diepe septische shock. De medische stukken vermelden onder meer ondervoeding, cardiorespiratoire insufficiëntie en biochemische ontregeling." Geen straf te hoog voor dit tuig.